Raya
Raya was given to 831 girls in 2025, #369 among girls’ names; 8,008 Americans have been recorded with it since 1958 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 7,940 Americans named Raya and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (99% of everyone recorded); the median is 6 years old and half are between 3 and 15.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Raya by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
How popular is Raya?
#369 among girls’ names, 2025
Raya rose from #1,211 in 2015 to #369 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born rose from 0.12 to 0.52 per 1,000.
867 babies in 2023, the peak
Raya peaked in 2023, when 867 girls were given it, #353 among girls’ names. The 836 births of 2025 (girls and boys) are 96% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 831 | #369 | 0.52 |
| 2024 | 861 | #365 | 0.53 |
| 2023 | 867 | #353 | 0.54 |
| 2022 | 784 | #400 | 0.48 |
| 2021 | 636 | #495 | 0.39 |
| 2020 | 277 | #933 | 0.17 |
| 2019 | 239 | #1,062 | 0.14 |
| 2018 | 216 | #1,134 | 0.13 |
| 2017 | 249 | #1,038 | 0.14 |
| 2016 | 237 | #1,092 | 0.13 |
Every recorded year (57)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 206 | #1,211 | 0.12 |
| 2014 | 197 | #1,237 | 0.11 |
| 2013 | 199 | #1,205 | 0.11 |
| 2012 | 185 | #1,290 | 0.11 |
| 2011 | 191 | #1,255 | 0.11 |
| 2010 | 168 | #1,383 | 0.09 |
| 2009 | 158 | #1,475 | 0.09 |
| 2008 | 154 | #1,519 | 0.08 |
| 2007 | 126 | #1,733 | 0.07 |
| 2006 | 125 | #1,688 | 0.07 |
| 2005 | 108 | #1,813 | 0.06 |
| 2004 | 98 | #1,920 | 0.05 |
| 2003 | 105 | #1,799 | 0.06 |
| 2002 | 61 | #2,570 | 0.03 |
| 2001 | 58 | #2,623 | 0.03 |
| 2000 | 59 | #2,561 | 0.03 |
| 1999 | 54 | #2,631 | 0.03 |
| 1998 | 45 | #2,914 | 0.03 |
| 1997 | 42 | #2,921 | 0.02 |
| 1996 | 25 | #4,278 | 0.01 |
| 1995 | 32 | #3,472 | 0.02 |
| 1994 | 33 | #3,419 | 0.02 |
| 1993 | 49 | #2,558 | 0.03 |
| 1992 | 40 | #2,957 | 0.02 |
| 1991 | 31 | #3,512 | 0.02 |
| 1990 | 34 | #3,270 | 0.02 |
| 1989 | 28 | #3,643 | 0.02 |
| 1988 | 27 | #3,552 | 0.02 |
| 1987 | 12 | #6,225 | 0.01 |
| 1986 | 11 | #6,475 | 0.01 |
| 1985 | 12 | #5,946 | 0.01 |
| 1984 | 7 | #8,882 | under 0.01 |
| 1983 | 11 | #6,117 | 0.01 |
| 1982 | 8 | #8,020 | under 0.01 |
| 1981 | 9 | #7,228 | 0.01 |
| 1980 | 13 | #5,460 | 0.01 |
| 1979 | 15 | #4,788 | 0.01 |
| 1978 | 5 | #10,994 | under 0.01 |
| 1977 | 9 | #6,729 | 0.01 |
| 1975 | 9 | #6,316 | 0.01 |
| 1974 | 7 | #7,466 | under 0.01 |
| 1973 | 7 | #7,226 | under 0.01 |
| 1972 | 12 | #4,725 | 0.01 |
| 1969 | 5 | #8,366 | under 0.01 |
| 1967 | 5 | #7,573 | under 0.01 |
| 1964 | 6 | #6,589 | under 0.01 |
| 1958 | 5 | #6,801 | under 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Raya a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Raya has been given almost only to girls: 5 boys in 57 years of records.
Girls and boys named Raya: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Raya, and how old are they?
7,940 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 99% of the 8,008 Americans ever recorded as Raya. The median Raya alive today is 6 years old; half are between 3 and 15.
The 2020 Census counted 4,367 people named Raya (4,291 women and girls, 76 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 3,782 born in the U.S. The Census count is 15% above that prediction. Possible reasons: the Census counts people born abroad, whom SSA’s files leave out, and it records the name people give, which SSA may have recorded under another spelling or as part of a compound name.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 9 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 82 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 360 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 1,720 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 5,770 |
An estimate, not a count. SSA’s files count people born in the United States who received a Social Security number, so anyone born abroad is not in them; before 1937 most people got a number as adults, and their survival is counted from that age.
Living estimate: SSA births carried forward with the survival rates in SSA’s cohort life tables (2024 Trustees Report) for each birth year and sex. How the estimate is made. Count: Census Bureau, first names in the 2020 Census (released April 14, 2026; names reported 100 or more times, with the Bureau’s disclosure-avoidance adjustment).
Where are babies named Raya born?
The states with the most babies named Raya are California, Texas and Florida, with 28% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | 108 | #303 | 1.0× |
| Texas | 67 | #486 | 0.6× |
| Florida | 48 | #395 | 0.8× |
| New York | 46 | #378 | 0.9× |
| Pennsylvania | 34 | #326 | 0.9× |
| Ohio | 32 | #355 | 1.0× |
| Washington | 31 | #236 | 1.0× |
| Illinois | 28 | #377 | 0.9× |
| Virginia | 28 | #307 | 0.8× |
| Georgia | 24 | #485 | 0.8× |
Where Raya is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Raya is most over-represented in Minnesota: since 1958 it was given 1.2 times as often there as its national share each year would predict.
States: SSA state file, 1910-2025, published May 8, 2026; births count girls and boys together, and the rank is among girls’ names in the state in 2025. The file leaves out any state and year with fewer than 5 babies of the name, so small states are undercounted; each ratio compares the state’s births of Raya with the births its national share predicts year by year, for states with at least 100 births of the name.
Names spelled alike
Of these 8 names spelled alike, given to 38,825 babies since 1880, Raya is the second most given (21% of them). In 2025 it was given to 836 of their 1,394 babies (60%), the most given that year.
Spelled alike: names in the SSA national file with the same pattern of letters and sounds and at most two letters apart, and Wiktionary’s listed forms; births since 1880 and in 2025, and each name’s peak year, from the SSA national file, published May 8, 2026. Some are separate names, not spellings of one.
Names that rose and fell in the same decades as Raya
Names whose births rose and fell across the same decades, measured on each decade’s share of births.
Similar histories: each decade’s share of births, from the SSA national file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
More about Raya and names like it
- Compare Raya and RaeBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2020sRaya peaked in 2023.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Raya since 1910.
- The top names of 2023The year the most babies were named Raya.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Raya alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with RMost given first.